Over two year ago, I upgraded from a Motorola featured phone, to a Windows Phone: HTC HD7. At the time, I loved it. Since then, I have owned a Galaxy Nexus and played around a little with an iPhone 5. Recently, however, I decided to go back to Windows Phone, so I bought the Lumia 928 for Verizon. I can safely say that Windows Phone sucks and I don't even believe Microsoft is serious about this thing.

1. NOTIFICATIONS: Windows Phone needs a central repository for notifications. To many times I've received a notification, and had no idea where it came from. If you don't have to app pinned, good luck. Using Windows Phone now is like using iOS 4, before the notification center was released. Sure you can get a quick glance of which app needs attention by looking at the home screen. But what if the app is too far down on the screen? What if it's not even pinned at all? When Windows Phone first launched, the tag line I believed had something to do with making life easier by getting things done quicker on the phone. Without a central notification repository, you're forced to search for the location of alerts. That isn't fast nor easy.

2. CRASHES: My Galaxy Nexus was slow as dirt. The 928 is much faster. However, one thing the Nexus didn't have was apps crashing all the time. The Windows Phone default map doesn't work at all. Once you zoom in, the app crashes. I don't like to use the Nokia maps application because it feels very disintegrated. Why are there separate apps for maps, navigations, public transportation and city lens? Even apps like Skype, Fandango and Yelp crashes on me a lot.

3. VOICE COMMANDS: The dictation in Windows Phone flat out suck. The one thing it has going for it is that it is FAST; much faster than Siri or Google now. However, it has a much lower accuracy rate, especially if background noise is present. If the TV is on, good luck getting it to interpret what you want. I admire the effort to interpolate whether or not a statement is in fact a question. If so, it adds a question mark(?). It doesn't work to well, however. What to us may be an obvious question, to it is not. Also, I was shocked to see speech wasn't a universal feature as it is on Android. I can't use it in Skype or any other application for that matter.

4. GESTURES: I was surprised to see many apps don't take much advantage of gestures. With many Android apps, you are able to pull down to refresh information, for example, or swipe left and right to get through different views. When I first opened IE, I immediately swiped left to try and move between tabs, then found out that wasn't possible. Why would I have to click through menus to make certain things possible? Seems very backwards to me. Another thing I noticed is while moving through open apps in the multitasking menu, I cannot click to switch to the app I want unless the scrolling has come to a complete stop, and the app is in the middle view. That is very frustrating. iOS 7's implementation of the same feature is much better.

5. WALLET AND NFC: The wallet experience in Windows Phone, at least when compared to Google wallet, is a complete fraud. It's incredibly half-baked. It's as if Microsoft gave it to an intern to do as a summer project. Also, why does bluetooth have to be on for NFC payments/transfers to work? Can someone explain to me the complexity behind that? On my Nexus, I simply needed to bring my phone close to another to activate transfers. In Window Phone, however, why do I have to click through menus to do the same? That absolutely makes no sense to me.

6. SKYPE: Why did Microsoft purchase Skype? After playing a game, I tried to share results with friends. Guess what? Skype was not an option to share results too. As a matter of fact, I could barely share to Skype from anywhere on Windows Phone. What's the point of it not being an option? Prior to buying the Lumia, my friends and I used Google Hangouts exclusively. There's so much we could do in it. Skype, on the other hand, seems like 2006 technology. No improvement whatsoever. You can't group video call without paying money. There are 1/5 the amount of emojis on it. You can't see who's typing or who is currently viewing the chat. Why even have Skype?

7. MISCELLANEOUS: Local deals should have pictures of the deals and a map view to make it easier to see the distance them.

Honestly, Windows Phone is good in some areas. But all in all, I regret the purchase of the Lumia. It's as if Microsoft gave up on Windows Phone or something. I can't see how these basic things can be overlooked.

it's my second day moving from an iPhone 5 and I am seeing some things that I just can't believe with WP8. My biggest issue is that when I read and delete an email on my phone it does not sync as read on Outlook and instead shows up as an unread message in the deleted folder. How can iPhone and Android sync better with exchange that Microsoft's own product!? Also, why can't I set the phone do download email pictures automatically? Security issue and data preservation is what I found as the reasons behind this. But I want to choose how secure I want to be and how much data I use.

Weird I've never had any crashes on the Windows Phone and the voice thing sucks on all phone operating systems. Notifications are fine and don't distract you and do provide you with useful information. As for the other features you mentioned I don't really use that much, so can't really comment on that.

Windows Phone is great and is still growing and is getting regularly updated so you should at least give it some time.

I'm kinda in the same boat as you. I loved my WP7 at first but nowadays I'm feeling disenchanted. A lot of apps haven't got updates (and I don't mean huge ones or games, but some like even the translator app!) and while the OS is fast, apps are damn slow. Seriously, using whatsapp, Skype and the new Facebook app is a pain and makes you wonder if you even have a smartphone. I know WP8 phones have better hardware and should perform better but I think my Lumia 800 is definitely not old enough to run so bad.

Last, I also agree about the missing features. Everybody says "they're coming!" but they're surely taking their time. And it's nothing new, I remember how much we had to wait for simple things like copy-paste! Microsoft simply takes too long for playing the catch up game and it's sad cos WP had (and arguably, still has) a lot of potential

I have a HTC Mozart 7, next upgrade I thought I would go Android, I had a Samsung Note 10.1, so I went with Samsung Galaxy S3, good phone, but I had got so used to Windows Phone, I bought a Lumia 520, my wife got the Galaxy S3, then she got the Galaxy tablet, I got a Surface RT, then for my birthday I got a Lumia 820, never had an app crash on either Lumia, or HTC Mozart, still got the 520 as a spare with a PAYG sim, and the Mozart for my granddaughter to use when she's here and left her's at home, the Windows phone for me has never been a problem, there again I don't live life on my phone, I use my Surface or my desktop for internet. Jim

Somewhat agree. Owned a Zune, Zune HD, etc. Wanted Windows Phone so bad just to have a phone with Music Pass. Got one and some things really sucked. Couldn't set SMS alert tones to repeat. Still can't as far as I know. Can't set a custom tone either. That would at least allow for choosing a longer and more annoying tone. That is really basic phone functionality. There is a lot of potential - but the speed at which they are adding features is lacking.

Yeah although I still like WP I do have some of the same gripes with it to where I would think twice before buying my next phone. IE sucks (need more gestures - people use tabs - all the time - don't need to burry them - let me swipe to get to them). Email app which I use a lot can't sync well as OP already mentioned. For someone who uses email on-the-go and on my PC's, this is quite annoying. If I read it - mark it as read on the server, if I delete afterwards - move it to my Trash (not as a new message). Also sometimes it would create 10 damn drafts of the same message in my trash folder too.

I understand some people would rather die than have notification center, to me it is essential - Live tiles don't suffice for me. I want to be able to see all my notifications including ones that I don't have pinned to my home screen (even more so).

Built-in maps are a joke and a hazard. Why on earth do I have to tap on the phone on each turn? Especially if I'm driving - using their Bing maps is a deadly risk if you ask me.

I can go on and on but that's been done already. It's pretty sad as I like Windows Phone better aesthetically better than it's competition but it's shortcomings and the snail-like pace they're catching up with (years now) is staggering...

Windows Phone isn't going to have gesture support like Android simply because of the pivot and swivel design of Metro apps. Not sure what you're saying about the multi-tasking switcher. Just slide over, and click the app you want, it's not that hard.